Bottletown

“Bottletown had only been around for ten years or so. Some kind of urban dream. Pretty soon the wholesome families moved out and the young and the listless moved in, and then the blacks and the robo-crusties and the shadowgoths and the students.”

“The noise of a window cracking in theafternoon.A spectrum of colours radiating out from the sun, as it flared abovethe high-rises. The light refracting through moisture suspended in the air.Theshimmering air.A million pieces of the sun shining on the walkways.”

“From every direction the crystal sharp segmentsof smashed up wine bottles, and beer bottles, and gin bottles,caught andmagnified every stray beam of Manchester light. The whole of Bottletown, fromthe shopping centre to the fortress flats, shone and glittered like a brokenmirror of the brightest star.Such is beauty, in the midst of the city of tears.In Bottletown even our tears flicker like jewels.”

"The Crescents were constructed in 1972. It was “one of the worst public housing schemes in British history”, with serious construction and design errors so bad it was demolished after 19 years (in 1991-94).]